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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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Part:         Session:         Page of 912

Perkins:

Yes. More than that. Smith got to everybody. Smith worked at it and worked at it. Now, I was a good friend of Harold Smith's in a personal way. I'd always been on good terms with him. But I had many a good hard argument with him about this thing, and I did not give way, because I'm sure he was wrong. I thought that a War Manpower Commission would be just a waste of everybody's time--and it was, when they finally got it.

Interviewer:

Did you consider the other aspect, for instance, the terrific dislocation in farm labor? This was one of the goads beyond the creation of the Commission.

Perkins:

It was one of the goads. The dislocation was farm labor going into the industries for better pay. I never knew how bad that was and how much it was just ordinary farmers' belly-ache. There's always something wrong with the farmers.

Interviewer:

It was real. It was one of the things that stumped Wickard in March '43. This plus the draft--no farm labor--no farm labor, no cow's milk.

Perkins:

Oh, yes. I remember that. That had to be accounted for. And we had to make rules for the Employment Service that they would not take, would not place a man that came





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